Two fundamentally different navigation systems for motor vehicles are known in which, in the first case, all necessary map data are available on board the motor vehicle, and in the second case, a central navigation computer is used to request navigation data. The former solution has the disadvantage that the available data rapidly becomes obsolete and therefore does not always take current conditions into account. These navigation processes are not dealt with by the present invention.
In the case of the process under discussion here the user of the vehicle enters a starting point and a trip destination through an input device (mobile radio apparatus or terminal). As the starting point the vehicle position currently determined by a global positioning system may be adopted automatically. This data is transmitted by mobile radio to a central navigation computer. This is done by telephone call to an operator, verbally or by entering the data directly into the navigation computer at a terminal. The navigation computer determines a trip route thus assuring that this is done by using very current map data and including current traffic information (traffic jams, road barriers, construction sites, etc.). The determined trip route is transmitted to the mobile radio and represented by suitable means for outputting the travel route. Such a process is utilized, for example, in the apparatus according to DE 44 29 121 C1.